1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to electronic messaging and, more particularly, to secure electronic messaging which assures the security of financial transactions and avoids the current difficulties experienced by users of electronic messaging for performing financial transactions.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of the internet for business and personal communications has been hampered by fears regarding (a) the security of financial transactions, (b) abuse of email addresses, (c) misuse of confidential information, and (d) inconveniences posed by solutions to the first three problems.
Regarding abuse of email, solutions for spam often rely on filtering, which risks blocking wanted messages; white and black lists, which, respectively, allows or blocks email based on the source; and challenge response systems, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,393,465 to Leeds. Another approach involves erecting financial disincentive to spam. U.S. Pat. No. 5,999,967 to Sundsted describes requiring an “electronic stamp” to be attached to emails which allows the receiver to “bill the sender for the agreed amount if he accepts the electronic mail.” Alternatively, the sender can purchase an electronic stamp from a third party from whom the receiver can subsequently collect the funds. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,192,114 and 6,587,550 to Council disclose a method wherein unauthorized senders are sent an electronic bill that must be paid prior to delivery of the email. U.S. Pat. No. 6,697,462 to Raymond discloses methods wherein unauthorized senders are required to post a bond against which service providers will deduct a penalty if notified that the recipient did not want the message that was delivered.
Regarding the abuse of confidential information, even wanted communications and transactions with merchants increases the risk of subsequent abuse of email addresses, credit card numbers, or other supplied information. To avoid internet distribution of credit card numbers, U.S. Pat. No. 6,246,996 to Stein discloses a mechanism for a seller to bill a buyer through an intermediary's email system. The bill is forwarded to the buyer through an intermediary service's email system and when the buyer responds with authorization to pay the bill, the intermediary can process the transaction without conveying any account information to the seller. Alternatively, U.S. Pat. No. 6,332,134 to Foster avoids disclosure of credit card information to merchants by providing for the customer to initiate an electronic message to the financial institution authorizing payment to a merchant identified in the message to the financial institution. Another attempt to limit information provided is disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 6,330,550 to Brisebois, using a consumer profile server.
Unwanted email results in loss of time and productivity to such a degree that many people actively seek to hide their email addresses in order to be protected from “spam”. This defeats the goal of being able to more easily communicate with people and businesses with whom communications are actively sought. The same concern exists regarding unwanted telemarketing calls. Therefore, there is a need for a system that creates a proper balance between privacy concerns and the need for efficient marketing of desirable products.
The problems outlined above cannot be adequately addressed with the existing systems for electronic funds transfer and email, the latter employing SMTP and POP3 protocols. Accordingly, there is a need for a new electronic communication system that give a user (a) greater control over the time he spends reviewing both expected and unexpected communications, (b) greater value from information shared about his market identity, and (c) greater convenience and security in the completion of financial transactions.
The present invention achieves these ends by (a) integrating a secure messaging system into a electronically controlled financial account for each user that allows both the sending and receipt of funds as part of an email to another party using a similar email enabled financial account, (b) allowing a user to specify a schedule of receipt charges required to receive email from specific individuals, groups of individuals, or classes of businesses, and (c) collecting marketing information about the user's purchases made using this financial account, with the user's permission, so that it may be sold to marketers and thereby increase the income that the user will receive from receipt charges. None of these three features, individually or in combination, is presently known.